Story+1984-11-16+Ames,+IA

´´This is a song about, uh, powerlessness....and where it can, uh, where it can take you.....”
 * 16.11.84 Ames, Iowa, intro to ´Nebraska´**

´´Thank you....everybody, I guess, has, uh....certain events that they end up marking their lives by....I remember....I was, I was a freshman in high school, I was in gym class when I heard the....the day I heard that, that John Kennedy was shot....this kid came running across the field telling us that the President´d been killed....and I remember, uh, I remember where I was when I heard that Elvis Presley died....I was living on this farm in New Jersey and a friend of mine called me up....and it seemed kind of strange that, that somebody who had taken away so many people´s loneliness should end up dying so lonely....´cause he deserved a lot better...and uh....I guess a dream, a dream that comes true can be a dangerous thing....”
 * 16.11.84 Ames, Iowa, intro to ´Johnny Bye Bye´**

´´Now, this is a song....about ancient history....now I´m not talking about Mesopotamians.... or the Greeks....or the Babylonians or the Italians....I´m talking about personal stuff....I mean the kind of stuff that you´re gonna read in the National Enquirer after I die....probably while I´m still alive....I´m in a confessional mood.....you see, when I was a kid, I was just kind of interested in three things.....one I was interested in, I thought I wanted to be a poolplayer ´cause my dad played real cool.....then I was interested in the guitar....and then I was interested in.....you know !....so like one Christmastime my mother took me to Sears and for 69.95, she bought me one of these little pooltables....now, it fit just right in my bedroom....so like I used to bring my girlfriends over and I´d like.....I would tell my father like ´Dad, we´re gonna go upstairs and play pool´....but like....but like he used to sit in the kitchen all the time and the kitchen was right below my bedroom so if he didn´t hear the guitar and if he didn´t hear the poolballs knocking around, he had this broomstick he used to bang on the ceiling.... but I like, I kind of tricked him, I pulled the pooltable like way over real close to the bed and every once in a while I´d get up and knock the poolballs around a little bit.....but anyway, as I grew older, I matured....I gave up pool....and of the other two, the only I really became proficient at was the guitar....but the third thing....I´m still looking for some volunteers who wanna practise, practise, practise.....it´s a lonely life....anyway....in the end all things must pass....and all this stuff ain´t nothing but glory days....”
 * 16.11.84 Ames, Iowa, intro to ´Glory Days´**

´´I know you got a lot of....a lot of the farmers out here, particularly the family farmers, having a hard time....this is a song called ´Sugarland´....”
 * 16.11.84 Ames, Iowa, intro to ´Sugarland´**

´´Thank you, this is uh, this is a song I guess I started to write it, I thought I was writing about the town I grew up in....and uh....I know that when I was, when I was a kid, I kind of always had a love-hate relationship with the place that I was living in....mostly hate at the time (chuckles) and uh....I guess it was hard for me to come to grips with the, admitting that I belonged somewhere and that I belonged to something.....so this song is kind of about responsobility to the place that you live in, whether it´s your town or your state or your country....and uh....and tonight when you go out into the lobby, you´re gonna see some people from the Foodbank of Central Iowa....and uh....what they do is they feed people that are hungry....and by now in this country 20 percent of the food that gets produced every year gets wasted, gets thrown away.....and what they do is they try to pick up on some of that food, makes sure it gets to the right agencies so it can get to the people that are hurting out there....and right here in Iowa, they service about 130,000 people that ain´t getting enough to eat.... there´s people going hungry right here in the heartland....so.....these are people that are out there trying to make a difference, trying to make the place that you live in a better and more decent place to live....trying, trying to take away some of the meanness that´s out there....so they can use your support, they´d appreciate it and I´d appreciate it and in the end this is your hometown.....”
 * 16.11.84 Ames, Iowa, intro to ´My Hometown´**

´´Bring it down a little bit, boys....now, wait just a minute....bring it down a little further, boys....now, wait just a minute....this is a song.....about the conflict....between worldly things and spiritual health....between desires of the flesh.....and spiritual ecstasy....now, where did this conflict begin ?....well, it began in the beginning....in a place called the Garden of Eden ....now, the Garden of Eden was originally believed to have been located in Mesopotamia.... but the latest theological studies have found out that its actual location was ten miles south of Jersey City, off the New Jersey Turnpike....that´s why they call it the Garden State.....now, understand....in the Garden of Eden, there were none of the accoutrements of modern living ....you didn´t have a little television you could watch every night, you couldn´t put your little Pop-Tarts in the toaster and go watch Johnny Carson....you couldn´t go down to the Laundromat and do your clothes....you couldn’t go out on to the highway and buy a cheeseburger if you wanted one.....now, in the Garden of Eden there was no sin....there was no sex.....man lived in a state of innocence....now, when it comes to no sex, I prefer the state of guilt that I live in....but before we started this tour I decided to make a spiritual journey to the location of the Garden of Eden to find out the answer to some of these mysteries, why, why my body pulls me this way and why my soul pulls me the other way....so I went there and I found out that that spot is now occupied by Happy Dan´s Celebrity Used Car Lot....I walked in, the man looked at me, he said ´Son, you need a yellow convertible, a four-door DeVille with a Continental spare, wide chrome wheels, air-conditioning, automatic heat, with a full fold-out bed in your backseat, eight-track tapedeck , TV and a phone so you can speak to your baby when you’re riding all alone’....I said ‘I’ll take two´....but I said ´Dan, now that´s not all I came for, I want the answer to some of these mysteries, why I feel, why I´m feeling such conflict all the time´ and he said ´Son, listen close because that´s easy ´cause right here on these ten beautiful industrially-zoned acres was the sweetest little paradise that man had ever seen....there was many wonderous things : there was a Tree of Life, there was a Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, there was a man, Adam, there was a woman, Eve, and she looked fine....she had lips like honey when Adam kissed her, it was the first time that a man ever kissed a woman....she had legs that were long and pale and soft....and when Adam touched her, it was the first time that a man had ever touched a woman....but there was something else in the Garden of Eden on that day, Son, old Satan came slithering upon his belly and somehow he turned their love into a betrayal and chased them running down into the darkness....but right now, right here on this backlot, for 99.95 and no money down, .....I have their getaway car....and if you´ve got the nerve to ride, Son....I´ve got the keys....to the first....pink Cadillac....´´
 * 16.11.84 Ames, Iowa, intro to ´Pink Cadillac´**

´´When we first started going out together....like we were laughing all the time and stuff.... and later on it seemed like the things, the things that made her happy once just didn´t make her happy no more....and I was spending most of my time trying to find a way to make her happy again....she used to come out riding....but she got to where she started hiding my keys ´cause she didn´t like me going out at night....and it got real hard....to make her understand ....that when I took the car out and when I won.....it was the only time that I really, really felt good about myself....and that to have just one thing....one thing in your whole life....that makes you feel proud of yourself...well, I don´t think that´s too much for anybody to ask....is it ?.... (....) Well, that was the night that we, that was the night that we left....now, we still don´t know where we´re going yet....but I guess that´ll come in time....but anyway you gotta keep searching.....you never know what you´re gonna find.....”
 * 16.11.84 Ames, Iowa, intro to ´Racing in the Street´**

//Compiled by : Johanna Pirttijärvi//